Microsoft's most incomplete accessory ever, at only $100, is also its most ambitious.

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A look inside the Xbox Inclusive Tech Lab as they reveal their new controller with improved accessibility. (Video shot and edited by CNE and Justin Wolfson. Click here for transcript.)

REDMOND, Washington—The Xbox Adaptive Controller (XAC), slated to launch "later this year," looks almost incomplete at first glance. The clean, confusing-looking slab, nearly the length and width of an Xbox One S, has no joysticks. The usual selection of Xbox inputs has been reduced down to a few menu buttons, a D-pad, and two black, hand-sized pads.

Don't let the pared-down design fool you. The XAC is one of the most unique and widely useful control tools Microsoft has ever designed, and it seems poised to change the way many players interact with the games they love.

This is the Xbox Adaptive Controller (XAC), mounted on a tripod. You can see a hint of its back-side panel with indented labels at the top...

Sam Machkovech

...and these lead to 19 jacks, all for 3.5mm plugs. That is the assistive device standard for plugging in add-ons.

Sam Machkovech

MikeTheQuad, a tetraplegic gamer and member of the Warfighter Engaged community, shows off the XAC in action—and this photo's angle shows how 3.5mm devices plug into its back. They can be hot-swapped at any time during a gameplay session should a player wish to change a device's button use.

Microsoft

MikeTheQuad hangs out with another XAC tester with a decidedly more elaborate series of accessories.

Microsoft

This kind of specialized rig certainly costs more than what Mike showed off during the reveal event, but XAC does reduce the starting price for such an effort—and simplifies the setup and install process.

Microsoft

The operative word is "adaptive." XAC's potential truly begins with its back-side strip. There, you'll find a whopping 19 ports, all 3.5mm jacks. No, this isn't a giant middle finger to the headphone-jack haters at Apple and Google. Rather, these ports see Microsoft connecting with, and loudly celebrating, what has long been an open secret in the world of gaming peripherals: the community of add-on devices designed for limited-mobility gamers.

Oversized buttons, finger switches, blowing tubes, foot pedals, and other specialized inputs have long been built for gamers who can't hold onto or efficiently use average controllers (gamepads, keyboards, mice). Recent speeches from company heads like CEO Satya Nadella and Xbox chief Phil Spencer have paid lip service to "inclusivity" in computing and gaming, but this device, the XAC, aims to do the trick by connecting niche add-ons to standard Microsoft hardware.

After exploring the ways hospitals, charity groups, and non-profit organizations already help limited-mobility gamers enjoy the hobby (and pay for unwieldy, specialized gear), in 2015 Microsoft's Xbox research group started an initiative to build an Xbox-branded hub that can bring down costs and frustration for users and caretakers alike. One year later, this skunkworks project received funding and a pathway to become an official Microsoft retail product.

In fact, this project has been hiding in plain sight for over a year. The Xbox Inclusive Tech Lab opened at one of Microsoft's Redmond campus buildings in 2017, and Ars visited last year under the auspices of an Xbox One X demo and conversation. After that chat, a helpful PR agent's eyes flashed brightly as I asked about the specialized headsets and pedal-driven rigs against one wall. I'd love to see what these are about, I noted.

Six months later, standing in the same room, that agent's teammates grinned from ear to ear as they pulled the veil off a table that exposed the XAC—and, crucially, its range of compatible accessories.

A suite of accessories compatible with the Xbox Adaptive Controller and its 3.5mm ports.

Sam Machkovech

Notice the 3.5mm jack. This product, the StealthSwitch 3 foot pedal, can plug into any slot on the back of the XAC and replicate a particular button's press when stomped on. This foot pedal retails for $19.95.

Bend the rubber tip of this AbleNet switch to activate its button press. The product costs $210.

Bite on this plastic tube to activate a button press.

The larger button at the top-right is currently sold by AbleNet for $65 a pop. Microsoft did not provide a name or price for the smaller, finger-sized switches.

A proximity switch from AbleNet that activates when it senses motion within one inch of its top. It retails for $215.

AbleNet's wobble switch costs $100 and does two things: it activates a button press when pushed a certain small amount, and it returns to the correct orientation after being pressed.

Interestingly, accessory maker PDP is building a one-handed joystick controller with two-buttons and a USB attachment. It will launch in "mid-June."

The prototype version we played with was casually referred to as a "nunchuk," in spite of not having any Nintendo license, and its pair of buttons have the same "C" and "Z" labels as Nintendo's version. PDP wasn't on hand to confirm whether those labels will change in the shipping Xbox version.

As the above gallery shows, the XAC can be connected to a variety of peripherals, most of which offer binary on/off input—like a basic button press. Gabi Michel, a senior Xbox hardware program manager and a major member of the XAC team, told Ars that a few of the 3.5mm ports support an "analog" range of joystick and trigger presses as well. Two USB ports support joystick peripherals such as existing PC flight sticks and a new Xbox-branded, one-handed "nunchuk" from peripheral maker PDP.

Thus, XAC lands as a weird product from a "first-party" gaming company, because it has to be completed by whichever gamer uses it. During its reveal event, Microsoft's hardware design team argued that this was no accident. They had to unlearn all of their previous assumptions, they said, and realize that a one-size-fits-all controller would never work for the XAC's target audience.

Taking "copilot" to the next level

"The old design axiom is, 'You are not the user,'" says Bryce Johnson, Microsoft's "inclusive lead" in its product research and accessibility team. Johnson is wearing a T-shirt with the all-caps phrase "MORE LOVE" on the front. Talking about inclusivity principles as they apply to Microsoft products and software, he says the old axiom has been harder to mind on the Xbox team because they do all play games in their free time. "Before Xbox, I was in Dynamics. I didn’t work on accounting software all day, go home, and play comptroller all night," he adds. "But our Xbox team plays games in the day and plays games at night."

When it came to designing a more accessible controller, though, members of the design team had to get into a mindset outside of the standard controller use cases they were familiar with. Thus, again and again, a mantra was repeated during the preview event: by leaving any gamers in the cold, the standard controller just wasn't good enough.

Xbox One's controller was constantly praised by Microsoft staffers for being an "industry leader," but each person offered some variation of admitting that "optimizing a single use case" left a lot of potential gamers in the cold. "Emails to [Microsoft CEO] Satya [Nadella] about disability ended up on our desk," director of user research Kris Hunter says. "We’d have to direct people to nonprofits or to hacking resources."

The Xbox team eventually launched two initiatives on the console, each meant to help limited-accessibility players on a default-hardware level. Xbox One's "copilot" mode lets multiple controllers function as the input for a single player. Players can also access a full button-remapping control panel to reassign controller buttons to function as they see fit.

These were a good start, but Microsoft reps still received plenty of questions over control-related problems. Strange online hack attempts, like fans cutting Xbox One controllers in half just to spread buttons out to more easily reachable places, also suggested that more needed to be done for these players.

3D-printed prototype shells for the XAC.

Sam Machkovech

Design notes for the near-final XAC design.

More XAC design notes.

A broken-out look at the depth and build of an individual XAC "big button."

Sam Machkovech

All the while, XAC was being built behind the scenes. An early version (which we weren't shown) first emerged at Microsoft's annual Hackathon in fall 2015, and by spring 2016 three interns were assigned to fine-tune its design and "business case" pitch. Months later, the XAC appeared at the next Microsoft Hackathon, and this version passed the first-blush test.

Once that prototype gained enough Hackathon traction, Hunter's job was to decide if and how Microsoft would build the thing. An early thought of passing the XAC concept along to a third-party hardware maker was quickly shut down. "We decided early on that this was something Microsoft had to build," Hunter says. "This was our opportunity to prove that we were serious about assistive technologies for all gamers. We had to use that a lot to sell this internally."

Hunter was also frank about the difficulty of getting members of Microsoft's business team to get on board. "We got the question: how many [units will sell]?" Hunter says. "We were like, we don’t know! And we won't know until we ship. The traditional business success metrics... this doesn’t fit into any of those normal metrics. We had to move the goalpost. The [return on investment] is different. This is about allowing more people to play."

Didn't Valve beat them to the punch with this type of input for a controller? Not sure how well those controllers did, though.

this is way more custum than the steam controller though.

Yeah, this is "put whatever controller/button/input wherever you want and just plug it in". This is pretty epic for a variety of uses. From an accessibility perspective, it is exponentially more useful than a Steam controller.

Excellent, in more ways than one. Using Rocksmith, a “game” that teaches how to play the guitar and bass, I often have a controller on the floor to push buttons with my toes, as my hands are occupied with the instrument. This is a great replacement for that. So even outside the target audience will this find a use.

Good on microsoft for giving this a go. It's not going to be a money spinner for them but that could never have been a possibility. I hope it gains traction and allows more people access to games, and no matter the system, that's gotta be a good thing.#positivenews

Acknowledging how useful this will be for people with mobility issues and other disabilities, it is a nigh-certainty that enterprising dark souls players will use this to make ever more odd setups to speed run Shadows Die Twice (or bloodborne 2 or whatever From comes up with next).

Acknowledging how useful this will be for people with mobility issues and other disabilities, it is a nigh-certainty that enterprising dark souls players will use this to make ever more odd setups to speed run Shadows Die Twice (or bloodborne 2 or whatever From comes up with next).

There is a dark side to this, and I'm sure people will install this to get an advantage in competitive games too.But this is such an important tool for people with disabilities that we'll just have to cope with that.

Is that really a dark side? Isn't it great that we can all (if we want) design the optimal controller for the game(s) we love? It's like emergent gameplay - but for controllers.

And as you say in the end it's about including those with disabilities, so it's good. I'm really impressed with MS here. While this might make some monetary return in the long run - and not just from people with disabilities - it is clearly not a project undertaken for profit. Good for them (and everyone else).

also sony has to fallow ms lead right? its kinda a bad look if they dont.

Hopefully so.

If Microsoft is willing to produce a quality device for disabled gamers like this, with possibly no return on investment, Sony should, too.

Very nice move, Microsoft 👍

99% of companies cannot afford to produce things with no return on investment. Microsft are in the 1%, Sony are in the 99%. Just check out their respective Balance Sheets.

Kudos to MS for developing this thing. Really. But Sony should not feel pressure to respond in kind. Sony simply cannot afford it.

The win / win / win would be the production of compatible drivers for PlayStation so their gamers could also take advantage of the controller. That would be a real demonstration of a desire to let gamers game, and doesn't have to come with the big r&d pricetag attached to build new HW.

also sony has to fallow ms lead right? its kinda a bad look if they dont.

No. They don't. And they shouldn't.

This will not be a money making exercise for MS. Like Bill personally donating to charity, it's fantastic. But from a business perspective, a complete waste of shareholder value, unfortunately. And Sony, unlike MS, have to make Playstation viable (and arguably need to support many other loss making segments). Microsoft, due to their Windows monopoly, have effectively unlimited resources.

This exercise must have burnt millions, if not tens of millions.

If Xbox had to live or die on it's own merits, I would say MS should be trying to appeal to a wider market and put resources elsewhere - especially considering the daylight between Xbox and PS this generation. I get that it doesn't. And that's cool. But Sony has not the luxury of being as finacially strong so as to burn money in this way. So, no, I don't think Sony doing nothing in this space is a "bad look". Like when Bill donates his $5b to a worthy cause. That doesn't mean we are assholes for only donating $20 or whatever.

If these things are ever commercially viable down the track, all the tech MS R&D has created will be easily be "borrowed" by other comanies down the track anyway.

This kind of attitude is exactly what is wrong with many businesses today. This is a short-term view, looking no further than the next quarterly reports, and ignoring any longer-term effects of consumer good-will.On a longer-term perspective, this may raise opinions of the company. And that is good for shareholder value. Case in point: MS received a lot of negative press surrounding XBONE launch, as a result, the XBONE did not do nearly as well as projected while Sony gained.A few tens of millions into something that basically generates good publicity for the next few years is definitely not wasted money, and is good for shareholder value even if the product itself may not return the R&D costs, let alone drive an MS sized profit.Of course, MS also spends more than a few million on publicity, most of which will never show the company in this good a light!

Apart from that, it is a really great initiative, and looks like a wonderful product. I might end up getting one just because it is interesting (I tend to buy interesting user interfaces just because...)

This is absolutely amazing. And it sounds like they kind of threw a ball into Sony's court. By the way it sounds, Sony could literally have this technology with, no problem, with their own logo.

There was a line somewhere in here about realizing the privilege of being able to use the normal controller without issue. It was somewhat confusing to read those words because I've thought about that a lot. I was like "well duh..."It's easy for me, though, to say "well duh," because I grew up with a quadriplegic uncle. And now I'm his live in care provider. As a gamer, hell, as a computer user in general, seeing what he can do with no grip and limited hand functionality is humbling. To type, he weaves a pen between his fingers. He can mostly function a mouse properly, but not since he cannot really move his fingers, it's still a bit more effort. My point is that it seems so easy for me to forget that many (most?) people aren't aware that there are people with disabilities that do not allow them to use many products. And it can take a product like this to really hit it home with the masses.

And this very much goes to accessibility in the rest of the world, such as wheelchair ramps (which also help people on crutches, with walkers, etc...) sloped sidewalk encroachments, automatic doors, van-accessible parking, hell, even conveniently spaced park benches. Many people complain about regulations aimed at helping those people until they witness the kind of joy and/ or anguish of people who just want to eke out some part of a normal life after an accident or who have birth defects/ disabilities.

also sony has to fallow ms lead right? its kinda a bad look if they dont.

No. They don't. And they shouldn't.

This will not be a money making exercise for MS. Like Bill personally donating to charity, it's fantastic. But from a business perspective, a complete waste of shareholder value, unfortunately. And Sony, unlike MS, have to make Playstation viable (and arguably need to support many other loss making segments). Microsoft, due to their Windows monopoly, have effectively unlimited resources.

This exercise must have burnt millions, if not tens of millions.

If Xbox had to live or die on it's own merits, I would say MS should be trying to appeal to a wider market and put resources elsewhere - especially considering the daylight between Xbox and PS this generation. I get that it doesn't. And that's cool. But Sony has not the luxury of being as finacially strong so as to burn money in this way. So, no, I don't think Sony doing nothing in this space is a "bad look". Like when Bill donates his $5b to a worthy cause. That doesn't mean we are assholes for only donating $20 or whatever.

If these things are ever commercially viable down the track, all the tech MS R&D has created will be easily be "borrowed" by other comanies down the track anyway.

Phil Spencer literally said anybody can have this technology, it's about making gaming accessible to the broader picture and not about profit. So yeah, there is almost no R&D Sony has to produce to make this a Sony product.

Edit to add original quote from article

""I will never turn this into a Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft [competitive] thing," head of Xbox Phil Spencer said at the event. "Anybody, literally anybody who wants to learn from the work we’ve done here—or even try to do more than that with the work we’ve done here—I’m completely open to that. it doesn’t have to have an Xbox logo on it. Let's just allow more people to play.""

The current controller which basically unchanged for decades needs a redesign as well.

Decades? That's a bit of an overstatement. The current controller isn't that old, and even more importantly, modern games and systems are pretty flexible on controller input

You don't have to go back that far to discover how user-hostile things were.

Just a few days ago I dug out my Gamecube to play Wind Waker again... I was shocked to discover that not only was Y inverted, but it even has X inverted... and there's absolutely no ability to change it.

also sony has to fallow ms lead right? its kinda a bad look if they dont.

Hopefully so.

If Microsoft is willing to produce a quality device for disabled gamers like this, with possibly no return on investment, Sony should, too.

Very nice move, Microsoft 👍

99% of companies cannot afford to produce things with no return on investment. Microsft are in the 1%, Sony are in the 99%. Just check out their respective Balance Sheets.

Kudos to MS for developing this thing. Really. But Sony should not feel pressure to respond in kind. Sony simply cannot afford it.

99% of made up statistics are wrong.

More seriously, I don't see anything wrong with pressuring Sony to make similar device. A lot of people just don't care because they think "that will never happen to me". Sure it most likely won't affect you, but look how many people are affected. https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/ ... 40x960.jpg I see no reason why they should be excluded from gaming.

The plugboard at the back of the device gives me happy flashbacks to an old ZX Spectrum joystick interface (Kenwood? Kensington?) that had a keyboard of sockets and physical plugs to map to joystick functions. Ah, those were the days.

Most of us will end up old and weak and shaky (if we're lucky). Adaptive tech isn't only for the small percentage of people excluded by disability, it's also for the big slice ageing out of comfortable play.

Quite a few commentors think Sony should create their own version of this. Sony doesn't need to create their own version of this. They just need to update their software to allow the use of this controller. That solves the entire problem with practically no R&D requirement on their part.

Acknowledging how useful this will be for people with mobility issues and other disabilities, it is a nigh-certainty that enterprising dark souls players will use this to make ever more odd setups to speed run Shadows Die Twice (or bloodborne 2 or whatever From comes up with next).

There is a dark side to this, and I'm sure people will install this to get an advantage in competitive games too.But this is such an important tool for people with disabilities that we'll just have to cope with that.

Is that really a dark side? Isn't it great that we can all (if we want) design the optimal controller for the game(s) we love? It's like emergent gameplay - but for controllers.

And as you say in the end it's about including those with disabilities, so it's good. I'm really impressed with MS here. While this might make some monetary return in the long run - and not just from people with disabilities - it is clearly not a project undertaken for profit. Good for them (and everyone else).

I guess that's true... I was more thinking about keeping things on a level playing field. On the other hand, emergent gameplay for controllers sounds great.

It's just that I fear of getting no-scoped 360'ed across the map by someone who's also bunny-hopping by using his toes as extra controller input. The divide between being 'semi-casual' and 'pro' has just widened.